About the Artist

Art has always been a part of my life. As a child, surrounded by artistic adults, I had access to some very grown-up art supplies such as oil paints. My interest in art has never waivered and after completing my BA in Fine Art at Florida International University, I was able to jump-start a lifelong career as an artist. Let me interject that my schooling had taught me absolutely nothing about the business of the art world, in fact, quite the opposite, as “money shouldn’t matter, and one should just keep on creating”!

In the real world, leaving academia behind, I quickly realized that I needed to build a life that would support my art. Right out of art school I was hired by a studio that did hand painted fabrics and given the task of designing a line of silk fabrics for the interior design trade. Since textiles were my specialty, it was the perfect first job. Painting on silk became my passion and I started doing the art show circuit with my paintings. Not many people in the USA were using silk as their canvas back then, so I had a unique product to offer the public. I got to bypass the traditional gallery system for the most part and took my art on tour from Key West to Connecticut, selling directly to the customers for over 30 years. During that time, I did have some one person shows here and there. The Discovery Center in Ft. Lauderdale, Gold Leaf Gallery in DeLand, and others. But life on the road was profitable and I received many awards. The awards not only brought extra income, but also boosted me into the better shows. Festival of the Masters at Disney was one of those and they only showed artists who had major awards from other festivals.

With grandchildren entering the picture, I decided to give up the highway and took a job as the Education Curator at Ormond Memorial Art Museum. Now that I am semi-retired, I still do some freelance curating for the Museum. I curated a father-son show for Harry Messersmith and his father Fred, (postmortem); and a show called: “Mandalas: 4 Artists Enter the Circle”. That show featured the work of Jorge Fernandini, Dan Gunderson, Paul Heussenstamm and me.

Artist Statement

Acrylic paintings on canvas

My current body of work is about the 12 Stages of psychological growth that we all go through based on the studies of Carl Jung, a psychoanalyst who used Mandalas or circles to help his patients to reach an understanding of their inner selves.

My own fascination with Mandalas began with a book of Hindu art that I discovered as a teen. I created my first Mandala to use as a focal point while giving birth to my first child. I have sought to expand my awareness of the subject since then by studying with Paul Heussenstamm, a mandala artist and Susanne F. Fincher a well-known Jungian-oriented art therapist who used Mandalas in her own work.

Each of us experiences the Great round in our own way, but there are archetypal images that we would draw within an empty circle that would tell a Jungian trained therapist exactly where we are.

Creating this work did something to me that I was not really expecting. As I painted each stage, it took me back to experience it again. Sometimes it was difficult and painful but I worked through it by changing it to more of an ideal of that stage or how I experienced it at a later date. Healing has been part of the process for me.

 I am hoping in viewing this work perhaps something will awaken in your own soul. And just maybe the presence of one of these Mandalas can have a healing power for you as well.

Instagram: @Circlepainter.
Facebook: @Tropical Silks
Website: www.tropicalsilks.com